Computer Geeks: Need Help Building a New System

[Jay5.9L]

Its finally time to retire my 10 year old PC for a new build. I have not kept up with the latest computer tech so any advice is appreciated. I want to stay in the 500$ range for now. My goal is to get good/very good MB, RAM, case, etc. and use lower level CPU and graphics cards. This way I have a stable foundation and can upgrade later as the parts fail/the price on the faster processors drop. So what would you guys build? I'm leaning toward an sandy bridge quad core and Win7 OS. The rest I have no clue. Also where do you guys buy parts? With EBC gone is there a local place or is New Egg the best rout?

It will be primarily a Face book and Internet machine but I want it able to play some games if I so desire.

TIA!

 

[Stephen]

Mac Mini
Just plug in your existing display keyboard and mouse. It'll last you another 10 years.

 

[Herzog]

I always buy from newegg but I'm sure there are other good sources out there now days. There are even some pretty good deals on barebones systems which include the mb & power supply and then you pick your cpu, ram and hard drive.

You can easily build a pretty slick system for $400-500 diy on newegg. I've build a couple myself in that price range. Adding a good graphics card might bump you over that price though.

I think you would be pretty happy with an Intel i5. Go at least 4Gb on the ram but don't be afraid to bump it to 8Gb if the price is right.

I've had good luck with ASUS and GIGABYTE motherboards. Both are great, buy based on reviews on newegg... they are usually very accurate.

 

[Herzog]

Mac Mini
Just plug in your existing display keyboard and mouse. It'll last you another 10 years.

So will a custom setup for about $200 less. Probably be faster and you have many more upgrade options later on. (I'm being a mac hater, posting from a macbook pro )

 

[Spork]

Newegg is where it's at. As for what parts, I haven't kept up. I usually avoid a brand that has given me problems in the past. If you're upgrading from a 10 year old machine I don't think it matters what you pick the new one will be faster. My last box I built I went with an integrated video card, a cheap MSI board, an AMD processor that had a bundle deal with the motherboard, 4 GB of RAM, 500G WD hard drive, and a case that looked decent. Kind of sad to say but I probably put more thought into the case than the rest of the components. I like the screwless design and I don't like the underside of my desk looking like a discotheque so lots of LED's were out. My Hard drive died after about 9 months and I replaced it with a 1TB drive from a different manufacturer. (not buying WD drives again any time soon) but the rest of it has been solid.

 

[Stephen]

So will a custom setup for about $200 less. Probably be faster and you have many more upgrade options later on. (I'm being a mac hater, posting from a macbook pro )

Arguably, you are correct. Obligated to plug the Mac's though. (I think my Apple certifications lapse next month. Then, no more obligation )

 

[Jay5.9L]

I know anything will be faster than my old POS, I bet my cell phone is faster at this point in time. Been reading that the Core i3-2100 is a smoking little chip that will get me by untill I need to upgarade to a i5/i7. Should I try to get a MB with USB3 or some of the newer protocols?


Yea I know go mac. I just got a Iphone and its slick but I'm still a PC fan boy. Maybe one day.

 

[Herzog]

Arguably, you are correct. Obligated to plug the Mac's though. (I think my Apple certifications lapse next month. Then, no more obligation )

Mac's are slick. The hardware is nice and I find my mbp very functional. But I still love my big rig pc at home.

 

[Corban_White]

I would get the usb 3.0. I have it on my laptop and on my portable HD. Large file transfers are SMOKIN' fast!

 

[JL Rockies]

The Mac mini is not a ticking time bomb of suk waiting to explode into a cloud of asstasm without warning though. Just sayin'

 

[ozzy702]

I know anything will be faster than my old POS, I bet my cell phone is faster at this point in time. Been reading that the Core i3-2100 is a smoking little chip that will get me by untill I need to upgarade to a i5/i7. Should I try to get a MB with USB3 or some of the newer protocols?

Yea I know go mac. I just got a Iphone and its slick but I'm still a PC fan boy. Maybe one day.

The i3-2100 is a great little hyperthreaded dual core. To be honest, these days I'm more inclined to just point people to a quad core, especially when the i5-2400 is only $50 more. Most programs today are still optimized for single or dual core processors but that is changing as quads become the standard. Spending $50 on a quad now gives you years more usability.

Yes, get a mobo with USB3 on board so you can run it to the front of your case. Most of the newer boards are coming with USB3.0 headers just like the USB2.0 that have been standard forever.

If I were in the market for a new computer I'd be tempted to wait and see how AMD's new chips look. They should be out within the next month or so and look promising. I've built several AMD boxes for friends and family over the years and am a fan.

Get a quality PSU that will last a long time from corsair or antec in the 400watt range if you're going sans GPU and in the 500-600watt range with a decent GPU.

DDR3 is so cheap right now there's no reason to go less than 8gigs. Newegg just had some quality 1600mhz Gskill for $39.99, kills me since I paid over $120 for 4gigs just a year and a half ago.

Samsung F1 1TB is a killer drive for the money. Fast and only $59.

Do you do any gaming or is this just a surf the web kinda machine?

 

[ozzy702]

Mac's are slick. The hardware is nice and I find my mbp very functional. But I still love my big rig pc at home.

This. I have a macbook pro from college that still works great, a newer macbook pro that I use at work along with a few PC towers. I dig the mac laptops, I just can't bring myself to spend money on mac's anymore (especially when I get a new one every three years at work ). I work on PC's and mac's all day and they both have their advantages, what cracks me up is the apple and PC fanboys.

I've got a built to the hilt PC full tower at home that I do video editing, bluray ripping/encoding, general surfing and gaming with. Going from that to my work computers sucks LOL.

For what an imac costs I've got the following specs.

i7-2600k (overclocked to 4.2ghz)
8gigs DDR3
3TB of storage
SLI (dual) GTX 570's <---- $600 worth of the build (don't tell my GF)
Coolermaster HAF 932

The thing I dig about PC's is the ability to swap out parts, when you want to upgrade. I built my machine over the course of two years, each time donating my old parts to machines for my girlfriend and my dad. You can't do that with a mac. Not to mention when something goes belly up on a mac you're out of luck.

 

[Jay5.9L]

Good points Ozz. It will be mostly a internet machine/wife's damn face book for now but I want the ability to swap parts when they get cheaper or if I ever start gaming again (Diablo 3). I got a price quote from Universal Systems (in SLC) and it was not too bad. It was still a few hundred over what I can build one for from New Egg parts.

 

[chans]

I would also recommend Newegg. Sign up and keep checking their Shell Shocker emails for a kit with an I5. They don't have the graphics card you would want for games but there are some nice Nvidia cards in the 100 range now. The I5 should last you for a long time. My I7 only uses less then 25% of the CPU for any app and all the new games in the highest settings.

 

[ozzy702]

Good points Ozz. It will be mostly a internet machine/wife's damn face book for now but I want the ability to swap parts when they get cheaper or if I ever start gaming again (Diablo 3). I got a price quote from Universal Systems (in SLC) and it was not too bad. It was still a few hundred over what I can build one for from New Egg parts.

Built it yourself. It's slightly cheaper and to be honest I don't trust most stores when it comes to their choice of hardware and software.

GTX 460, 560, 560 ti or ATI 5770, 6850 or 6870 are all good choices of GPU's that should play Diablo 3 well and run great on a quality 500-600watt PSU.

Let me know if you need help with a newegg parts list. Also let me know if you're open to buying used components since I have plenty of friends that are always upgrading their 1 to 2 year old high end stuff for the latest and greatest.

 

[Jay5.9L]

Thanks again for the advice. Ozzy, I may take you up on your offer with the parts list help. I also am open to buying gently used parts. On a side note can you recommend a good wireless router? I've been meaning to get one so I can connect the TV (802.11n) and the Iphone.

 

[ozzy702]

Thanks again for the advice. Ozzy, I may take you up on your offer with the parts list help. I also am open to buying gently used parts. On a side note can you recommend a good wireless router? I've been meaning to get one so I can connect the TV (802.11n) and the Iphone.

Been using the linksys E3000, it's overkill but it's been working well. These days it's hard to go wrong with cheap $50 wireless N routers, just look at reviews on newegg and sort through the idiots that don't know how to set them up properly. Look for failures instead of user error.

I'll ask around for parts and see if anyone has anything decent.

So you mentioned general web surfing but also Diablo. Blizzard programmed Starcraft 2 to be very heavy in the CPU department compared with most games that offload the heavy lifting to the GPU. The reason they did this is so that even people with weak GPU's could play with decent performance.

My guess is they do the same thing with Diablo so I'd look for a CPU with four cores and high IPC (instructions per cycle).

Check out the current newegg promo. Prices are good until 9/26.

http://www.newegg.com/emailpromo/?c...omepage/blackNov10/bnr_homeLinkList_email.png

I'd grab the i5-2500, the antec earthwatts 650 psu and Gigabyte GA-Z68 mobo off that promo.

Then I'd grab the following. Vanilla ASUS dvd burner, samsung F3 1T hard drive, AMD 6870 GPU, 8gigs of 1600 GHZ GSKILL and whatever case you choose and go from there.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371044

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115073


That comes out to $676.77 to your door, then you'd need to buy a case, somewhere in the $50 - $75 range will get you a decent one.

Not too bad considering the power you're getting and quality parts. To give you an idea of the speed the newer Intel chips put out take a look at the charts on Toms Hardware.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/x86-core-performance-comparison/benchmarks,128.html

Those charts represent single core performance at the same clock ratio. So comparing the single core pentium 4 @ 3ghz to the sandy bridge i5-2500 @ 3ghz (only one of the four cores) the i5 is roughly 200% to 300% faster than the pentium 4. Now multiply that by four cores and you have a good idea how fast these things are. :bow:

Edit: The build above is the kind of machine that will be about as "future proof" as possible per dollar but if your budget is less let me know and I'll look at some less expensive options.

 

[Jay5.9L]

Went balls out and got a E4200. So far its smoking fast.